Quicksand
by Xyliette
Summary: The progression of a relationship through lunch dates and silly conversations about super powers. Mark/Callie.


A/N: Last prompt, I'm proud I finished something! Anyway, this is my first real time with this pairing so fair warning and all that. Oh and I apologize for any glaring mistakes, my eyes said fuck you and went home for the day at about three. I promise to give it a better run through in the morning. Hope you like it Hannah...and everyone else as well. Let me know how bad I wonked this, or if you liked it so I know how far I can go next time.

**_-----_**  
**_Quicksand  
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The first time Callie saw Mark Sloan he was down the street from the hospital where she liked to hide in the corner of a ridiculously small deli, if you could even call it that. It was more a crack in the wall with three tables and an overly flirtatious ten year old girl behind the counter. He caught her attention and honestly she can't think of a woman who would be anything less than impressed by his marvelously lickable exterior but just the same she figured he was one of those guys, the ones who don't call and only cared for the really thin, dyed blonde heads of bimbo land.

Callie watched with a smirk while he gleamed his eyes and smiled broadly at the young girl who was trying strenuously to make her cleavage eye level. Callie simply wiped the mustard off the corner of her mouth and went back to the pastrami on rye in front of her. She was busy with George and while the guy ten feet away was damn gorgeous she kind of had a thing for the silly, gnome looking surgical intern. And she was certain that this guy, the one with the kick ass taste in leather jackets wouldn't see her if she was standing three inches from him.

And so it went. Every so often she would see him on her weirdly scheduled lunches, when she wasn't busy hiding from her all boys club of ortho, or when she wasn't busy trying to convince George that he should love her. She came to know his name, his reputation clearly preceding him and she learned they worked in the same hospital but that was it. Now, as she stares down at her pastrami thinking of her failed marriage, the stupid blonde resident who she always feared she'd lose to and her demotion, she knows a lot more about Mark. Or at least about the way he conducts business, and he conducts it well. She ponders the benefits of one night stands while pushing some of her plain potato chips around the flimsy red plastic basket.

She doesn't notice him sit down in front of her with his own cheap container until he says her name. She looks up startled out of her reverie and then looks back down at her half eaten sandwich. Things used to taste good, this was her favorite spot and now, now all she can think of is how differently things could have turned out if her hair was a different hue and she was seven sizes smaller. It's petty and a little highschoolish of her but Callie can't help but note all of the differences. For once she just wants to win.

"Torres, eat." Mark motions. His mouth half full.

"I don't want it." She shoves the food his way and fixes her morose glance to the outside world of happy shuffling people. She used to be one of them, she used to slide into this very chair and grin at her good fortune when George would text her. Smile at the way he kissed her shoulder than morning or chuckle about how his stubble would attract her hair like static.

It was all a lie.

"Yes you do. You're getting all emaciated. It doesn't look right."

"Is that your professional opinion, doctor?" She glares. Fury growing within for every wrong doing her life has taken this month.

"My professional opinion says that if you don't eat I'm going to have to strap you to a gurney and perform breast augmentation. Eat, do that gorgeous rack of yours a favor and give it nutrients."

She shakes her head trying not to laugh at his brusqueness and flops horribly. She snorts when she inhales and ends up fanning her rosy cheeks with the hand that isn't gripping the side of the table.

"Damn Torres, it wasn't that funny."

She continues on because it feels good. It feels amazing to just laugh and struggle for breath and not feel like she is strangling herself with every inward gasp. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize for laughing." He snags a chip from her basket and replaces it with his disgusting pickle.

"I don't want your pickle." She remarks trying to be dead serious.

"Everyone wants my pickle." He winks and she giggles again relaxing in the presence that every one else seems to find so annoying.

"Not me."

"We'll see about that." He shoves the crust of his sandwich in with another one of her chips and swipes a drink from her water bottle when she isn't looking. He needs a friend, he's in a relatively new town, stuck in the middle of the nurses' strike and Derek never pays attention to what he's saying unless he's bagging on Meredith. It feels good to just let loose.

**_-----_**  
\/p  
"Third day in a row Sloan, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were doing this on purpose just so you'd have a lunch buddy." Callie grins when he takes his normal spot, this time providing her with the extra drink that she seemed to have forgotten.

"And what if I am?"

Her smile fades and she turns her head ever so slightly trying to figure out Mark's angle. He's always got an angle. "I don't know, are you?"

"I'm just enjoying spending my lunches with a beautiful woman, that's all. No crime." He smirks knowing that he is actually starting to develop quite the crush on the bone carpenter. He thought maybe it was Hahn but the way Callie's black hair floated around her shoulders and the way her eyes sparkled that night in Joe's…he knew it was her. Now he just needed to make a move.

She blushes in spite of herself knowing that this is simply Mark. "So what's our topic of conversation today?"

He purses his lips in thought trying his damnedest not to stare at the low cut of her shirt and failing miserably. He clears his throat and sets his mind again while she waits. "Superpowers."

"Superpowers?"

"Yeah. Like when you were growing up which one did you always want to have?"

"I don't know. My mother kept me into pretty girly things. I guess I'd have to say invisibility. That would have been nice."

"Really? I pictured you as more of a daredevil, like flying or turning into a ball of flames or something."

"Eh…I guess those are cool too. What about you?" She fiddles with the salt shaker to her left growing moderately nervous. The last few days had been great and now they are starting to get more in depth and he's asking about her childhood and he's oh-so sexy and she's trying not to jump him during lunch while attempting not to shut down. It's too soon for another person; she can't be in a new relationship yet. She can not be falling for another man before her divorce is finalized. It's such a hard balancing act.

"I always thought it would be cool to have x-ray vision."

Callie rolls her eyes and quips, "Of course you did," because this guy was born a manwhore from the get go.

"Or to have superhuman strength."

"You're kind of a nerd; hate to break it to you."

"I am not."

"I bet you liked chemistry and the planets and stars and band before you turned into some football jock."

"I never did band, that was Derek." He scowls.

"Oh but you liked science."

"I am a doctor."

"Could have fooled me, seems like you are a better PR person for boob jobs."

He clutches his chest, "Ouch Torres, you're killing me over here. What's with the hate on Mark day we have going on? You need to get laid? I can help with that."

She bites her tongue and shrugs returning to her lunch having renewed faith in eating since last week.

"I need an apology."

"For what?"

"You hurt my feelings."

"You don't have feelings."

"I do too. I happen to have very many feelings." He leaves out the, "…for you…" section trying not to act like a little eight grade boy on the play ground and pouts pitifully.

"Oh fine. You're kind of annoying like this….ugh. Sorry I made fun of you're superhuman, chemistry, planetary science loving freakiness." Her hand slips on her cup and she nearly drenches them both with water but he goes in for the save and accidentally brushes against her delicate fingers.

"I need a kiss to make it all better." He quips proudly and she stares back incredulously.

"Nice try. See you at work." She stands, nearly trips over her untied sneaker, and just misses bashing her head on the doorframe on the way out. When he watches her fumble with her purse on the sidewalk nearly spilling the contents everywhere he knows he has won.

He doesn't know what it is but he knows he is falling and he is falling fast.

**_-----_**  
\/p  
"Happy anniversary." He greets her three weeks later. There's a single yellow daffodil sitting at her place on the table and he has already proceeded to pick up both lunches having learned quickly to pay attention to what she orders when.

"Anniversary?" She hangs her sopping wet coat and looks down at the flower. Her favorite. He never asked and she's never told anyone in this town that she can recall. She doesn't even know where he would get one this time of the year but resigns herself to thinking he must have his ways and takes her seat anxious to both see him and talk to him.

"One month." He grins like a four year old. It's not his longest relationship, hell it's not even technically a relationship since they have yet to see each other away from lunch and work let alone kissed or touched in any way that could be considered intimate. He's getting there though.

"Since?"

"Since we started having lunch woman. Sit, enjoy the company and let us celebrate."

"You're acting weird." She eyes him wearily and reaches for her sandwich pulling up the bread to remove the tomato only to find it is already missing.

"You know sometimes people order their food as they like it, not the normal way and then pull ten things off."

"I don't like to be difficult." She explains, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He settles in his seat, his knee "unintentionally" bumping into hers and staying to bask in the warmth radiating below her scrubs that she didn't feel like changing out of. He doesn't bother changing his anymore either, it's more comfortable this way.

He watches her eyes flit over his features, watches her absentmindedly lick her lips, watches her hands toy with the edge of the paper napkin and all he can do is smile brightly, "Callie, would you like to go out with me sometime?"

She nods in response, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding and thanking the universe for sending her someone so unbelievably amazing to occupy her in her time of need.

"Thank god." He huffs out feeling his heart rate drop.

"You thought I'd say no?"

"I don't know what you could possibly see in me so there was a very real possibility that you could-"

"Well there is that one thing that you do with your tongue that I am particularly fond of." She grins and raises her brow seductively.

"I'm going to need a kiss for being insulted. I've been letting things slide for days but now, now I feel entit-" He's cut short by her moist, hot lips engulfing his mouth as she leans over the table.

She doesn't know what they're doing but she's falling and she's falling fast.

They're kind of broken and messy but this could actually work out. For the second time this year, her first impressions have been wrong. He's not the asshat into blondes and fake tits, he's into her and she thinks that maybe, just maybe she could be into him.

Score one for Callie.

**_-----_**\/p

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End file.
